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I'd started taking Creatine Monohydrate two or three weeks ago, 5mg a day.
I wasn't really sure what I was expecting but since I was determined to get a bit more consistent with my weight training AND cyclo-cross season is approaching, I thought anything that helped with short hard efforts might be worth trying.
Can't say I've noticed any difference performance wise but it's early days.
However what I HAVE noticed is more muscle cramps, particularly during very innocuous activities as well as exercise, and different sensation post-exercise like my quads feeling sort of halfway between cramp and DOMs after a short run yesterday.
As usual, Google brings up entirely conflicting sets of advice, most of the legitimate looking stuff (medical journals/ articles) seem to suggest no link between Creatine and cramps, but of course there's a whole bunch of anecdotal stuff on Reddit etc. suggesting that others suffer the same.
My hydration levels are SLIGHTLY higher, if only because I'm drinking that extra glass of water in the morning now, otherwise diet pretty much exactly the same. All the anecdotal stuff on Reddit seems to suggest that it's not an electrolyte or hydration thing anyway.
Anyone else had this?
Presume you mean 5g not 5mg.
I have but only when doing a loading phase at 20-25g/day and it was hot and it was preseason American Football training, so I may have cramped anyway.
Most of the cramping issues reported have been during loading phases and down to poor hydration as you will be retaining water. I think the jury is out on whether a loading phase is necessary/advised these days as it can bring on GI distress too.
At 5g/day and a reasonable (not over) hydration you'll be fine unless there is something else going on.
I recently (Spring 2025) tried Creatine - same doseage; 5g per day taken in a glass of water first thing in the morning.
I took it for approx' 3 months and had no cramps or any other problems. I can't say I noticed any change actually which is why I haven't bothered buying another bag.
Presume you mean 5g not 5mg.
Ah, maybe this is why I'm not noticing any difference! 🤣
At 5g/day and a reasonable (not over) hydration you'll be fine unless there is something else going on.
Well this is the crux of my question, at that doseage and no other major changes I AM experiencing a lot more cramping. Trying to figure out any other changes but other than slightly more riding and minor changes to diet (randomly: eating more cottage cheese and fruit, drinking slightly less red wine) I don't think there's anything major.
Will see how I get on at my first CX race, I cramped really badly at the end of a recent sportive but I had been riding way above my usual level so was happy to attribute the cramping to fatigue, I've never previously cramped racing CX.
I tried it for 3 or 4 months last winter and suffered with cramps. Didn’t do a loading phase just started on the 5g a day, didn’t change any riding or training durations and didn’t cramp on the bike but would be sat on the sofa in an evening after a decent day out and move to get up and id feel that twinge where if you don’t catch it quick enough the cramp sets in. Also when riding my legs always felt like I was 20km in when I’d only just started.
didn’t notice any benefits only downsides so stopped taking it and back to normal now
Im taking the same dose as 13thfloormonk, seems less often bad inner thigh cramp .
Could be down to other things like new stretches etc, we'll see
i got chloroquine from the GP for a few weeks, but i stopped taking that mostly
That's interesting, my wife and I have been taking creatine for a few months, I've noticed random cramps which I never used to suffer from. Eg stomach when leaning/reaching/twisting awkwardly in a seated position.
OTOH I think it's possibly been beneficial for our weight training.
Also when riding my legs always felt like I was 20km in when I’d only just started.
Actually I should correct my original post because I do think my legs have been feeling better if late, but couldn't say if that coincides with the creatine or not.
I'll maybe stick it out for my first CX race and first month back on the turbo, compare performance vs. cramping...
Drink more water to compensate. Nowadays the evidence suggests that there’s no reason for loading a creatine, just take it every day.
I think it was marginally useful for recovery for me, probably because it supposedly draws water into the muscles so they were less hydrated the day after a hard workout. But I keep forgetting to take it now and haven’t felt much different so I might just sack it off.
Do you think maybe your getting cramps due to the extra effort your might be putting in because your using creatine and havn't matched your hydration levels accordingly? I use a combined Electrolyte/creatine powder.
But I keep forgetting to take it now and haven’t felt much different so I might just sack it off.
Its not a magic pill, you won't feel any different from taking it, it allows you to train a little harder and then over time the benefits of training harder will make you perform better than the baseline we would achieve without taking it. For cycling it's impacts would largely be in fairly short efforts, so probably better for mountain biking where there are repeated short efforts than for sustained efforts.
The reality of that is for most of us we are not training anywhere near hard enough for it to make an impact on our cycling performance in that manner. However for me there is a growing body of evidence for its affects on longevity and brain health (although still not conclusive I think) some people claim that if you take more than the dosage for muscle saturation then it basically "fuels the brain" but that seems pretty dubious and certainly unproven.
So I take 5g a day, with a decent magnesium supplement, d3 and omega 3, and I don't feel any different if I run out for a few days or even a week or so (other than I do lose a couple of kilos when I don't take creatine for a while), and if in the future the science tells me I have been wasting my money I will accept that, but for the moment they seem fairly safe supplements to take that appear to be backed by science to aid keeping active as I move into my latter years rather than believing it will make noticeable improvements in performance.
Do you think maybe your getting cramps due to the extra effort your might be putting in because your using creatine and havn't matched your hydration levels accordingly? I use a combined Electrolyte/creatine powder.
That's a good shout, but the only cramps I've experienced on the bike were explainable by other reasons e.g. very long day in the heat or unusually hard or prolonged efforts. The 'unusual' cramping is off the bike when I'm not particularly fatigued or anything.
I'll muck around with electrolytes a bit, I'm definitely hydrated as I'm peeing lots and clear! I take magnesium supplements on an ad hoc basis to help me sleep after late/hard rides, but I think it's easy to over-do the magnesium and wake up head-achey, so I don't think I'm particularly deficient. Will make a point of eating more bananas though, I'd been going off them recently but I guess that was a regular source of potassium that maybe I'm not getting as much of now...
Its not a magic pill, you won't feel any different from taking it, it allows you to train a little harder and then over time the benefits of training harder will make you perform better than the baseline we would achieve without taking it. For cycling it's impacts would largely be in fairly short efforts, so probably better for mountain biking where there are repeated short efforts than for sustained efforts.
Is that true though? Some of the studies I'd seen suggested a fairly immediate improvement to power over short efforts? I'd understood it was effectively a secondary source of fuel that you were topping up... My only real intensity recently has been some local TTs, I've definitely felt a bit more power at the top end but that could just as easily be improvements to my pedal stroke (finally utilising the glutes a bit better!).
I thought this was just me and being dehydrated or something. I took it for about 6 months this year, i was also drinking alot of electrolytes / water. But the cramps would be bad and got them all over, the worst being foot and stomach and at very random times. The performace assist i felt was great, but i stopped taking it due to the consistant cramping. After a couple of weeks the cramps have stopped now.
I have Lo-salt, which is I suppose 40-60% potassium, and daily recommendation is ~2gms. Hopefully this helps with cramps,as orther sources of potassium seem low. I was going to get himalayan pink salt to help with iodine,copper,manganese etc, but read that traces of these are so small as to be negligible. Iodized salt is hard to find these days. Also i dont know what im talking about, cos I still got bad cramps.
However what I HAVE noticed is more muscle cramps, particularly during very innocuous activities as well as exercise, and different sensation post-exercise like my quads feeling sort of halfway between cramp and DOMs after a short run yesterday.
I used it when I was doing a lot of resistance work about 20 years ago at, I think 5g per day, and had issues with cramps when running, particularly in my calf muscles. I stopped using, normal service resumed. I actually use it now, but only 2.5g per day or so and that seems fine. I started using for the (apparent) cognitive benefits when I was getting through long covid, I think it helps with short, high intensity efforts on the bike, like full-out 20s sprints, but that may just be wishful thinking. Also
I would go with your own lived experience of the stuff. It definitely adds water weight to your muscles, I actually looked slightly bloated on it and scales showed the additional water weight ,which isn't useful on the bike, and if you feel it's causing cramping/DOMs, simply don't use it or try cutting the amount you use - 'microdosing' sounds way sexier and you can tell people that's what you do. Individuals often react slightly differently to various supplements etc and if something doesn't work for you, it doesn't work for you and Google's various conclusions that it doesn't do that mean diddly squat.
Is that true though? Some of the studies I'd seen suggested a fairly immediate improvement to power over short efforts? I'd understood it was effectively a secondary source of fuel that you were topping up... My only real intensity recently has been some local TTs, I've definitely felt a bit more power at the top end but that could just as easily be improvements to my pedal stroke (finally utilising the glutes a bit better!).
I think the answer is yes and no.
Yes it should add a small amount of top end power, and should also add repeatability to that / reduce recovery times between efforts. But the real benefit is that by enabling you to do harder efforts more often, you get fitter.
The problem is, you're not a large scale double blind study. You're just one Monk. So it's a small improvement vs an unknown baseline. So the poster saying "I took it for a winter and didn't see any improvement" might be correct, but in a parallel timeline they didn't take it and lost 5% (because it's winter).
I'm not one to ask about cramps, I tend to get them anyway.
I've started taking it (5g/day) after getting back into "proper" weight training after about 10 years of only doing it sporadically. IMO I definitely feel the effects as I'm already lifting the same weights after only about 3-4 months of training as I was doing 10+ years ago after training for years. And with no niggly twinges/injuries etc.
Anecdotally a mate went to his GP concerned about niggles etc due to aging and mentioned creatine as I'd been talking about it, the doc was massively in favour of it.
Definitely feel I have to drink a lot more water now though, not that that's necessarily a bad thing as a lot of people probably drink too little!
Its not a magic pill
Maybe it is though? I started taking it after listening to an episode of the Science Vs podcast. They are very sceptical generally and cut through the bullshit. 😂 Worst case scenario is does nothing, but it's cheap and has no real side effects. Best-case scenario it helps significantly with the effects of aging (no doubt relevant to most on here) including muscle loss and even brain fog as you get older.
The whole "loading phase" thing is total bro-science crap though.
Interesting reading this stuff. I've been on it for about 10 days now and so far I think I feel a bit bloated but other than that no side effects.
The cramp thing is interesting , one of the reasons I started taking it as in 7 weeks I've got a marathon mtb event and I normally suffer from cramps on big days out , I've got better at managing it over the years and basically the fitter I am the longer I can go without it being an issue . I'd read that it can help with cramp on endurance events due it helping keeping the muscle hydrated or something like that IANAD 😀 Thought it might be worth a shot as it's relatively cheap and I'm getting into that age bracket where it could be beneficial.
I would go with your own lived experience of the stuff. It definitely adds water weight to your muscles, I actually looked slightly bloated on it and scales showed the additional water weight ,which isn't useful on the bike
Yeah... I looked yesterday (admittedly at a time of day I don't usually weigh myself) and saw a number I don't think I've ever seen before, scary! That said a long weekend eating and drinking in Nice probably didn't help that so I'll keep an eye on it. I'm heavy enough as it is so not sure I can afford ANOTHER 1-2kg...
try cutting the amount you use - 'microdosing' sounds way sexier and you can tell people that's what you do
It's like you know me! 😆 I like this idea, makes me sound like I actually know what I'm doing...
I'm erring towards sacking it off though, with the best will in the world I know I just don't train consistently enough so if the benefit of Creatine is mainly to assist in training harder to achieve fitness gains then I've probably got more to gain from just training more consistently, maybe achieve my lofty goals of one hard turbo session a week in between CX races and long slow gravel rides.
I'd read that it can help with cramp on endurance events due it helping keeping the muscle hydrated or something like that IANAD
I'm wondering if it helps with water retention but maybe throws the electrolytes out. For your marathon event I'd definitely recommend that Skratch Labs Pineapple electrolyte stuff, no sweeteners so you don't get gut-rot, and it's slightly carby to so contributes to fuelling. I use it in my hydration pack for any big days out.
iirc for electrolytes, or more specifically for magnesium, it needs to saturate the muscles/cells, so just taking it in a during when exercising has little to no impact, we should be taking it daily so the reserves are already in our bodies when it is needed. I also think the dangers of sodium have been somewhat misunderstood and exaggerated in the past and for people who take regular exercise we should be getting more in our diet than the usual guidelines (IANAD so if you already have high blood pressure then I believe it can exasperate the symptoms).
It definitely adds water weight to your muscles, I actually looked slightly bloated on it and scales showed the additional water weight ,which isn't useful on the bike
It's a one off performance hit though, think of it this way, you're 1-2kg heavier (so ~3% slower uphill) , but upto 15% more powerful in sprints and that extra 15% is impacting your training longer term (i.e. each workout is 15% harder so you get fitter, faster). It wouldn't take long to be 3% fitter, and another 3%, and another 3% and another 3%.
You can cycle it though (pardon the pun). Got an XC or CX race coming up, keep up the creatine. A 400km audax, stop the creatine a couple of weeks out, take that hit on your sprint and enjoy being 1-2kg lighter and the fitness benefits of training on it.
Is that 15% extra power pulled from your crevice for illustrative purposes, thisisnotaspoon? Because it sounds very high - doubt creatine is adding 150-200 W to anyone's sprint, and weight is always bad for XC and CX racing.
Is that 15% extra power pulled from your crevice for illustrative purposes, thisisnotaspoon?
If you're eating the stuff from my crevice and expecting a performance improvement, then I think that's where you're going wrong. It's spelt crEATINE not crAP.
But if you just want some stuff to read:
"The improvements range from 1–15%, on average." (I'll concede that this is specific to one exercise and I just took the headline "upto 15%" for brevity. There's only a 3.7% increase in cycling power after only 4 days of loading)
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/creatine-exercise-performance
And a far more in depth meta analysis showing 48-50W improvements in 30s power amongst all the other improvements.
"Creatine plus resistance training produced small but statistically significant improvements in............Wingate peak power [WMD = 47.81 Watts, p = 0.004] when compared to the placebo"
I take 3g a day (240x3g tablets for £16 seemed worth a go!) and have noticed more cramps if I don't keep hydrated. However, I've definitely felt better on the bike, felt better cycling 3 days in a row. I have the kind of build that struggles with power, so any help with that is a bonus.
I'll invest in some sort of daily electrolyte drink or something so I can be sure I'm properly hydrated, see how I go.
If I see even TiNaS's 3.7% power increase then even with a 2kg weight gain I should be up on the game, benefit of starting heavy is that an extra 2kg isn't that much in the scheme of things 😂
Is that 15% extra power pulled from your crevice for illustrative purposes
no, creatine isn't going to improve your sprint by 15%, and Healthline is as credible as getting your scientific data from TikTok 😂
I thought I was seeing an improvement already, pinched a couple of KOMs from someone on Saturday without really having to try (a local buddy I'm usually neck-and-neck with) but legs were empty for Sunday's CX race which was full of short punchy efforts.
Time to drag the turbo out and start hitting the 30/15s 🤮
Edit: oh, but no cramps 😎
So after feeling as bad as I did at the first CX race of the season, and generally feeling a bit sore and fatiguey, I thought I'd sack of the creatine for a few weeks, maybe find my baseline again (I might just have the bug that's going around and it's nothing to do with creatine).
Having said that, I broke my personal best for press-ups this morning, easily managing more, and with better form, than I've ever done previously. Wonder if that's an effect of the creatine although I've been off it now for three or four days...